ABC's hit sitcom "Shifting Gears" is bringing Beth Behrs aboard for Season 3, reuniting her with former "2 Broke Girls" co-star Kat Dennings in a guest role set to air in 2027.
Behrs will play Dr. Johnson, an emergency room doctor who treats Dennings's character Riley for a back injury, Variety reported. The casting also reunites Behrs with showrunner Michelle Nader, who served as co-showrunner and executive producer on "2 Broke Girls" during its six-season run on CBS.
For fans of old-fashioned network sitcoms, the kind built on chemistry, punchlines, and familiar faces rather than streaming algorithms, the move fits a pattern that has made "Shifting Gears" one of broadcast television's more reliable draws.
"Shifting Gears" stars Tim Allen as Matt, a stubborn, widowed owner of a classic car restoration shop. Dennings plays his daughter Riley. Seann William Scott, Daryl "Chill" Mitchell, Maxwell Simkins, and Barrett Margolis round out the regular cast. Allen also serves as an executive producer on the 20th Television production.
Season 2 already mined the reunion playbook. Three of Allen's former "Home Improvement" co-stars, Patricia Richardson, Richard Karn, and Debbe Dunning, appeared as members of a support group Matt attends. Nancy Travis, Allen's co-star from "Last Man Standing," played Charlotte, a fellow widower who nudges Matt toward the group in the first place.
ABC renewed the series for a third season in April. That Season 3 will now feature Behrs alongside Dennings marks a deliberate bet that audiences still respond to cast reunions from beloved network comedies, a bet the show has already collected on twice.
Behrs is not short on network-sitcom credentials. She co-starred opposite Dennings on "2 Broke Girls" for all six of its seasons on CBS, and she headlined "The Neighborhood" on the same network for eight seasons. That show aired its final season earlier in 2026.
Her resume also includes a voice role in Pixar's "Monsters University" and a part in the indie comedy "Hello, My Name is Doris." She currently hosts a podcast called "Harmonics."
Network television has spent years watching audiences migrate to streaming platforms. The broadcast sitcom, once the backbone of primetime, has struggled to hold ground. Revivals and reboots have become a standard countermeasure. NBC, for instance, brought back "Weakest Link" with Jane Lynch as host, banking on the same logic: familiar formats and recognizable talent still draw viewers in a fragmented landscape.
"Shifting Gears" has taken a slightly different approach. Rather than rebooting an old property outright, it built a new show around a proven star and then salted each season with reunion cameos. The Behrs casting extends that strategy from Allen's orbit into Dennings's, widening the nostalgia pipeline without repeating the same trick.
The show carries a deep bench behind the camera. Nader leads as showrunner alongside fellow executive producers Bob Daily, Jim Patterson, Marty Adelstein, Becky Clements, Richard Baker, Rick Messina, and John Amodeo. Allen and Dennings also hold producer credits.
No premiere date for Season 3 has been announced beyond a 2027 window. Whether Behrs's Dr. Johnson is a one-episode appearance or a recurring role remains unclear.
In an era when Hollywood chases the next prestige limited series or the next viral streaming hit, "Shifting Gears" keeps doing something unfashionable: making a broadcast sitcom that trusts its audience already knows and likes the people on screen. Sometimes the old formula works because it was never really broken.
